Her Last Dying Thought
by sunny tuesday
Summary: [songfic] [oneshot] The last moments of Lily Potter's life.


**Her Last Dying Thought  
****_To Depeche Mode's "Waiting for the Night to Fall" _**

She hears the door bang open as she pulls the meat loaf from the oven. Thinking nothing of it, she cools the dinner down with a flick of her wand before magicking a set of silverware for two.

"Lily- Lily, he's here! It's him!" a voice, harrowed and filled with desperation, calls from the front room. The china cups in Lily's hands fall to the floor and shatter into a thousand pieces… Her thoughts immediately go to her husband in the other room and her child upstairs. But she knows the procedure. They've talked about it a thousand times.

_Whoever can, get Harry and run! _

Lily's heart patters as she grabs her wand and races upstairs; the sounds of ripping upholstery and glass breaking echo behind her.

**I'm waiting for the night to fall  
I know that it will save us all  
When everything's dark  
Keeps us from the stark reality**

Harry is lying in his bed, asleep, angelic. Lily grabs him up and wraps a blanket around his small body. She is still amazed that James and she were able to create something so beautiful. She presses Harry to her chest, and in her head prays a silent prayer.

The window is latched carefully, and Lily forgets this; she tries to open it and it won't budge. The tears in her eyes blur her vision- she can't see, she's panicking, Harry is going to die-

She hadn't expected this to happen! The Fidelius Charm was supposed to stop this from happening- James had been so sure, so sure in trusting Peter Pettigrew. He wouldn't have betrayed them… He wouldn't have, right?

Lily takes out her wand and destroys the spells blocking her only exit.

**I'm waiting for the night to fall  
When everything is bearable  
And there in the still  
All that you feel is tranquility**

A loud crash sounds from downstairs through the floorboards, rattling the house. The home. Her home. Her and James' and Harry's home.

She can't get out the window with only one hand. She needs to apparate- if only they hadn't set up so many wards! Their own lengths to protect themselves were stabbing them in the back, betraying them.

Like Wormtail-

No, Lily tells herself as she fiddles with Harry's sling and drapes him across her chest, no. Peter did not betray us. He's our friend- he wouldn't…

**There is a sound in the calm  
Someone is coming to harm  
I press my hands to my ears  
It's easier here just to forget fear**

Suddenly, the world is calm. The eaves stop rattling. The crashing ends. She hears laughing, yelling, when a bright, green light flashes somewhere.

She knows, somehow, deep down, that her husband is dead.

This thought paralyzes her, drowning her in it as she weeps silently. A cry from Harry, who has woken up, brings her back to reality.

She hears footsteps on the stairs. And she turns to run- but the wall has eaten the window, to block the attacker from chasing its prey. Again, their lengths to secure betray them. Lily has nowhere to go. She sinks down behind the crib and hides Harry as best as she can under it, taking him out of his sling. She kisses him, and holds him close, tears pouring from beneath her eyelids. She knows- somewhere deep down- that this may be her last moments with her son.

**And when I squinted  
The world seemed rose-tinted  
And angels appeared to descend  
To my surprise  
With half-closed eyes  
Things looked even better  
Than when they were open**

The footsteps end- Lily's heart skips a beat. She draws one rattled breath before standing up, bracing herself in front of Harry's crib. She has nowhere to go. She had- literally- barricaded herself in this house with her son and her husband..

_James…_

She can't think straight- she's falling. Her wand falls from her wand- she struggles to grab it before it disappears from view. Suddenly, the door bangs open, reduced to dust. Lily stands shakily, to face the man who had terminated her husband, her _happiness_.

Her heart is shouting "he's just a man- Voldemort! Just a man!" But she doesn't hear it. All she can hear is his rattled breathing, his murderous laugh.

**Been waiting for the night to fall  
I knew that it would save us all  
Now everything's dark  
Keeps us from the stark reality**

Lily tries to fight him off. He offers her her life for Harry's. She refuses, as any mother would, refuses to allow him to kill her only son- the only one she has left. Lily tries to fight back… But she knows, how she knows…

Wormtail has betrayed us, is her last dying thought, before her life is taken so brutally from her, in desperation to protect her son. _Wormtail has betrayed us_.

She falls to the floor. Harry whimpers from underneath the crib.

**Been waiting for the night to fall  
Now everything is bearable  
And here in the still  
All that you feel is tranquility**

_s.t._


End file.
